Mr. Speaker, many people in this country today think we should have an elected judiciary. There are good points and consequences to that decision.
Overall, if we look at the American model, there is a tendency for judges to respond to a lot of political pressure from individual groups and so on. I am not sure how well that serves the process.
The difficulty here is that governments have really been involved in appointing judges. Members say it is an independent process, but it is really not. We can tell by Bill C-42 that a government is directly getting involved with the judiciary.
I like the suggestion from the Canadian Judicial Council that the terms of chief justices should be limited to seven years. That would make a difference. With some of the judges who have made bad decisions, as I have related here today, then we would only be stuck with some of these guys for a maximum of seven years but usually six, five, four or three.
If I had my way I would prefer to see a shorter term than an election of judges.